WordPress Comment System Intense Debate

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Blog Post Comments
I have long searched for a commenting system for my site. There are a couple popular commenting systems that I will not mention by name but have been around for a while. None of them seem to fit what I was looking for. Then I came across a system by intense debate. Not only does it have a nice clean, neat interface on the blog itself, but the feature list is quite impressive. The creators seem to have thought about the needs of the users of the system as well as the administrator. It was very simple to install and basically set itself up. As a disclaimer I need to say I do not know anyone at this company nor did they ask me to try their product, I merely ran across it and gave it a try.

I seem to have a disease when it comes to new plug-ins for WordPress or new software. Ever since the days of downloading shareware via modem and a BBS trying everything under the sun, installing so much that I constantly had to reinstall my operating system, I have no problem trying something new.

intense_debate_wordpress_syncComment Syncing
One of the first things to note, as a feature, is that your comments are uploaded into their system. However, not to worry, as there is always a sync between their system and yours in case you ever want to deinstall. That of course was the first hurdle I had to come over because I was not sure if I was going to keep it. By merely installing the sync feature they calmed my fears and I gave it a try. Brilliant customer acquisition feature on their part.

Comment Threading
I personally enjoy the comments and the dialogue around each post. However sometimes when you have 10, 20 or 100 comments it becomes difficult to follow the conversation. This is probably due to the fact that there are actually many conversations within the comments. While people reply to others comments, some people choose to post new questions or comments. This system allows for comment threading so that you or others can reply to one particular comment. Instead of the reply being added to the bottom of the list it is indented along with the comment it replied to.

User Profiles
Here is something I did not think about, and that is the relationship between the various commenters on your site. Most of those who maintain a blog think of themselves as the one individual that everyone is having a conversation with. A one to many relationship. However intense debate has implemented commenter profiles so the readers can learn about one another. Therefore you have a many to many relationship as readers can learn about each other and comment to each other. While users have always been able to comment to each other, this allows them to know more about one another.

Login
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No one, myself included, wants to create a new ID or account at every blog they read and comment on. There is the ability for you to login via Facebook, Twitter, or open ID. Now your users can login and comment on your site with an ID they actually created elsewhere and do not have to create a unique one for your site. This helps because now everyone has an instant profile and the comments among users becomes more likely.

Admin Features
There are many administrative features, if you are the site owner, to make your life much easier. One that I think is excellent is the reply-by-email. Therefore you can respond to and moderate comments via email without having to log into the site.

There are many other administrative features, take a look at what they have the offer and try out the system by posting comments to this post if you like.

Conclusion
There are many reasons to give the system a try, I suggest you take a look at intense debate and what they have to offer. I am very glad to consider my search for a worthy commenting system to be done. Whenever you use a service or a product that you do not think is just right, it is always in the back of your mind, however I am glad to put this one to bed.


eBay – How Much We Owe You

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My Favorite Site
My favorite site happens to be eBay, whether I admit it or not. Let me explain, some people may believe one thing about themselves but then do another. It is their actions that show true behaviour. I just realized after logging into my eBay account that I have been a member since 1999.

A Member Since 1999
Wow, I knew I had used eBay for a while but after looking at my profile I did not recall having signed up on June 24, 1999. Over the last 10 years I have bought and sold 129 items. Now that is not a lot however I do not utilize eBay as a business but I do use it to buy and sell items. More buying than selling.

So let us analyze me as a typical customer. I have been a member for 10 years and bought or sold a total of over 129 items. That is more than 12 items a year, or at least one item per month. That is one good customer to come back and interact every month for the past 10 years. Let’s just say we wish every site we operated or company we worked for had that kind of customer loyalty and lifetime value.

I have bought so many different items I cannot even begin to recall, and sold a couple items from cameras to cars. I sold two cars on eBay, amazing eCommerce platform when you think about it.

Are They a Success?
eBay is a huge success in my opinion. Their site and service have grown over the years and I am sure they have modified their customer outreach and site look and feel, but done it with such grace that I never had a reason to complain or notice their constant upgrades.

As a business they are worldwide, and as a company they own some of the top online properties such as Skype, StubHub and many many others. Not only did they perfect the online auctions and have one of the best, if not the best, eCommerce online platforms, but they also pioneered corporate communications online. Follow the eBay Ink Blog, my personal favorite and Mr. Brewer-Hay as he keeps everyone apprised of the goings on at eBay corporate. You can also follow him on twitter @ebayinkblog. He is a good friend and under the weather as of the writing of this article so wish him well.

Model Yourself
If ever there was a business case to review and study, this is the one. If ever there was a site communication strategy, look and feel, and overall user experience to imitate, this is the one. Model yourself after the best.

Roam and Study
I suggest you roam around the eBay site and study how they do what they do. Enjoy!

Power of Flash Banners

Why You Should Care About Flash
I thought I would post about flash banners with an example and discuss the “why you should care about flash“. Let us assume for a moment that you will be utilizing display advertising online. Let us also assume you have the proper networks, targeting, know what size banners generate the best click throughs for your audience, placement on the page, and you only have the option of paying on a CPM (cost per thousand) model.

Due to the CPM model, where you are paying for impressions, you must obtain the highest click through, and ultimately conversion rates, as you can. Many times flash banners can outperform static banners, and many times it can be substantially higher. Just going from .25% to 1% can take you from 2,500 click throughs to 10,00, and in some cases the increase in response can be even greater.

Types of Flash
You may be thinking that having something move, such as an image, is flash. However flash can be very interactive, here is an example of an interactive banner. This has a question that can be answered in the flash banner itself. Then the user is taken to the site.




In this case the flash banner is representative of the site itself and what the user will find. This will also increase the ultimate conversions.

Try Flash
For your next display campaign be sure to give flash a try. Most ad networks will accept flash as easily as they do a static banner. There are other types, other than flash, however not all are accepted easily and uniformly across most networks.

Hopefully this example will peak your creativity.

Google AdWords Position Preferences

AdWords Position
Here is a short tip with Google AdWords and position preferences. AdWords will allow you to request what position your advertisement is placed in. This can greatly impact your budget. In other words of the 10 positions, 1 being the top and 10 being the bottom you can choose where you would like to be.

Why would you want to do this?
Well, you can save on budget when you are initially testing a campaign. Many times the position you are in will determine the number of clicks you obtain. I have heard some speculate that the top position or second position may obtain a decent amount of clicks solely due to the fact that they are first and the level of interest of those individuals may not be as high. While the level of interest of those that read down to the advertisements to find the one that best matches their current interest may be a better quality lead.






Regardless of whether that speculation is true, the sole fact that the top two positions may obtain clicks much faster means that others will assure you burn through your budget faster. There are reasons why you do not want to exceed your budget every day which turns your ads off for the remainder of the day. You may want your ads to run all day and therefore need to control the number of clicks and the price to assure you do not have your ads turned off.

Where to Find Position Preferences
Within AdWords, while in a campaign you choose to edit your settings and you will see as you scroll down on the right-hand side you can check the box for adwords position preferences. Then save your campaign settings. Next go into a campaign and into the key words, you highlight all of the key words with the check box and choose to edit your keywords. The next page will have a column that allows you to choose the position from 1 to 10. Therefore you can choose to be, as an example, only in positions 3 through 6.

This is not the default so be sure that you edit your campaign settings. Give this a try if you want to limit your budget particularly in testing. You may find over time that this works for better quality leads across all your campaigns regardless of testing or not.


Huge Domain Portfolios and the Account Executive Role

Domain Management
I had never thought about this feature and option for domain management before. The idea that you have so many domains in your portfolio you do not have the time to manage them all. Of course, there are many they keep large domain portfolios. There are those that have portfolios of domains simply to sell them in the future and there are those that have many for their business.

What to do with the domains?
While some people use all of your domains, many of us purchase them (and by the way you can use a GoDaddy promo code for a domain discount) randomly in never use them. We may want to create a website in just not have the time. We may want to create it and hold it for while possibly for someone else such as maybe a family member, or a potential new business that we have come up with.

Now typically if the domain is not used it is parked somewhere, usually at the registrar where you purchase the domain. What this means is that when someone types in that URL they will go to a page that the domain registrar has put up. Therefore you do not have to worry that you are not using the domain, except for potential squatter issues. But that is more of a trademark issue and not something to discuss here.

Another popular thing to do is to find a company that will park the domain for you and help you make a little revenue. Revenue is made whenever advertisements placed on the page and someone goes to the page, your domains, and that page has been been created by the company that parked it for you. now typically this only works for the domains they already have inherent traffic. If you have thought of a brand-new name and registered it for the first time and no one ever owned it before you probably will not have that traffic. So while some people do claim to make a lot of money doing this and they may a brand-new domain may not be what make much. However if you are able to cover the cost of the domain that’s great.
Now let’s talk about the interesting account executive.

What is an account executive?
When it comes to domains, has created what they call an account executive. What I mean is that they have created an account executive role. Let’s say for example that you have a couple hundred domains. You will have to worry about where they are parked, are they renewed in time, or the name servers correct, is the contact information up-to-date, and many other issues around the domains themselves.

By creating the role of account executive Go Daddy has now allowed you to assign certain roles and responsibilities to another individual. You enter their e-mail address and give them rights to your account. You will still own the domains and control them however certain things can be done by this executive on your behalf. Now I can only see this being useful if you have a lot of domains, or potentially a company may have the domain owned by their attorney or a founder. These individuals may not want to make changes that someone in the IT group may have to.

Therefore the control can remain in the hands of one individual, and someone in the IT group can make the changes they need to make. I say IT group but obviously it could be operations or anyone else is responsible for the management of the domains. I have been in the position, many times, of being a startup that I started or was involved in very early and I registered all of the domains. Even putting them into a new account isn’t enough, as people will come to you constantly telling you you need to change a name server or something else. I would have loved this feature years ago so I could have easily given control to someone else of the daily management of the domains while not actually giving up the ownership. More importantly not worrying about the company losing ownership.

So take a look at the account executive feature if you want someone else to manage the domains on a daily basis particularly in a company.

GoDaddy Promo Code Coupon





GoDaddy Promo Code

FTP3 – $3 off every .COM

FTP1 – 10% off any order

FTP2 – $5 off any order $30 or more

GoDaddy promo codes that do not expire and also work for renewals. You simply enter them in the coupon box at checkout for the discount. Go to GoDaddy here to obtain your discount on domains, hosting and more.

GoDaddy Hosting
GoDaddy hosting promo code FTP1 can be used to obtain a 10% discount when purchasing a year or more of hosting. Total price is less than $60 for an entire year of hosting. They have an application area where you can install applications for just about everything with the click of a button, from blogs to ad servers, forums and more. The ease of use is incredibly helpful.

You can find additional GoDaddy promo codes found here, and they are checked regularly.

Add this page to Delicious – Click Here

Twitter Shortcuts

I found this list of twitter shortcuts in the twitter help section. These are great to know whether you use twitter in the browser, a computer application or on your mobile phone. These shortcuts will save you time.

  • @username + message
  • directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their “replies” tab.
    Example: @meangrape I love that song too!

  • D username + message
  • sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
    Example: d krissy want to pick a Jamba Juice for me while you’re there?

  • WHOIS username
  • retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
    Example: whois jack

  • GET username
  • retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
    Example: get goldman

  • NUDGE username
  • reminds a friend to update by asking what they’re doing on your behalf.
    Example: nudge biz

  • FAV username
  • marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update
    with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time)
    Example: fav al3x

  • STATS
  • this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and your bio information.

  • INVITE phone number
  • will send an SMS invite to a friend’s mobile phone.
    Example: Invite 415 555 1212